On one of my recent trips to Aus, I went railfanning, sort of, with Sten, Jason, and Colonel. First day was with Sten. As a train guard, I was looking for his gun, but it turns out that a train guard is more like a conductor. Rode with Sten for 5-6 hours all around Sydney. Great to look at the scenes, but no train pictures.Here is Sten doing his job: There is something going on all the time. Passengers getting on in the wrong door, off at the wrong stop, asking directions, etc. Sten said that there was a big electrical storm the next day and he did not get back until the wee hours of the morning. About a 4-5 hour delay. When we got behind, just push it up! Just like the airlines. We were in a compartment of the train that had engine controls. Here is 100 km/hr. The fastest I saw was 113 kph. [ 30. December 2004, 22:45: Message edited by: sapacif ]
Next day, went with Jason to Enfield (I think?) yard. Here is some of the covered hoppers there. Graffitti problems just like the USA. All very quiet as this was the last day before Christmas eve. Also, caught this real nice picture of an Alco. That's right, an Alco. Appropriately modified with a GM cab: And to finish a great day, here I am running trains on the Sydney N scale gigantic layout: Running DRGW, of course!! Thanks to Sten, Colonel, and Jason for the great stay in Sydney. Here I am back home in a running session on my layout in San Antonio. Notice, visor, Espee hat, workman's belt to hold three throttles at once, clipboard, and the City Rail high visibility jacket, thanks to Sten. I feel much safer in the basement now. A good time was had by all. Highly recommended! I purposely left out the part about starting the fight with the gate guard and almost getting Jason arrested.
Flash, Great pics and I love that Cityrail vest at least now your family wont lose you in the layout room.
That ALCo really looks like an EMD. They did an excellent job. What is SSR? Southern _____ Railroad. Can't read it all. What is the button Sten is pushing above his head? Does that control the door openings of multiple cars? Boxcab E50
SSR = Southern Shorthaul Railroad GM22 (Hubert Opperman ) is an EMD Info on the GM class aswell as another picture of GM22 in SSR colours Here The 2nd (4483?) unit is an alco tho Info Here (if it is 4483)
There are 3 buttons I think, one to open all the doors on that side of the train, one to close all doors and a button to give the driver the authorisation to proceed from the station
SSR stands for Southern Shorthaul Railroad. Yes, Sten is closing the doors on all the cars. They have 4,6,or 8 car trains. We were on an 8 car train. Passenger wise, the loads were light as it was close to Christmas and everyone was trying to get on holiday instead of going to work. I was going to do Sten's job some to give Sten a break, but he said that it was a sensitive job and he needed to keep it if at all possible. For me to push the buttons seemed to make this unlikely. No respect!! Sten clears the platform visually to make sure no mental midget is diving for the closed door as the train pulls out. Then, he gives one ring/horn to go or two to stop. This signal is between the "guard" compartment and the "driver" compartment. Interestingly, there are all kinds of employee schedules and we never did see the guy/gal who was driving our train. Sten worked one more day after this when he was so late. Then he had three days off. Then he worked 10 days in a row! Sten can work no more than 8.5 hours at a time. His work starting time seemed to vary widely.
Lmao Flash,luv it,hope it's not standard issue when operating your layout,what about a hard hat & steel cap boots? lol. BTW luv the photo of the F100 behind you!
Good thing it wasn't me. If I were to try it, would likely catch some poor passenger by their neck! Shorthaul. OK. Is this an all passenger operation? Or do they also handle freight? Boxcab E50
Boxcab50: I think that it is all freight. This was a holiday time and this was a container train. Maybe Sten or Jason can help. Notice the five chime horn down on the hood. I think this is for tunnel clearance. There are a lot of tunnels around the Sydney area.
Great shots Flash...pity we didn't see any freight. first freight I saw that day was driving home past the freight only Botany line. SSR = Southern ShortHaul Railroad first loco GM22 = EMD loco based on an F7 with C trucks 2nd loco 44class Alco The company is a privatre freight operator. All NSW passenger operations are Govt controlled. The only private passenger service in NSW is the twice weekly Indian Pacific to Perth run by Great Southern Railway Corp CityRail.... 3 buttons open/close/bell On the S/C/K/R sets the close button will only close the doors on that side. on the Tangara's it will close both sides (if for some reason they are open on both sides. The other side is identical to this side. The G set (outer suburban Tanngara has an extra button for releasing the doors (for short Platforms) the passenger then presses a button at the door to open it. The bell button activates a bell (derr ) kinda like morse code there are 16 combinations of short and long that have different instructions. For a right away the signal is one long but after 80 or so stops you end up witha headsache so we shorten it unofficially to keep the divers sane For a guard the max shift length is 9hrs 5 mins rostered but if things go bad like the following night then it is 12hrs max on the train (travel time back to home depot is not included in the 12hr count so in technicality you could claim a total of 13hrs with the last hr being travel and sign off time. The guards job is similar to the conductors job on a train we are qulaified in the operating rules basic defect repairs and emergency driving. We are not involved with revenue protection or ticket collection - just train operations. If Flash comes for another ride he can press the buttons ...... just don't be visible to the CCTV I'll get him to make the announcements I actually worked 3more days after that day and trhe first 2 were rightoff's Thursday - the storm and 12.5hrs of work Friday got stuck behind a train that hit someone for a couple of hours .... all can say glad I wasn't the guard Xmas day was good very quiet night
By chance is there a web page somewhere, with more information on this engine? Is it a one of a kind? Was it export built by EMD? Or shop rebuilt in Australia? Boxcab E50
You can follow 31.2kpbs's and it will give you info on the class. but basically the GM's were built by Clyde Engineering (which has an EMD lisence) for the South Australian Railways. The first group built were the GM1 class which had A-1-A trucks and 11 were built GM-1 being the first diesel locomotive in operaton in Austrailia. The next group were the GM2 (GM12-GM47) class and featured C trucks (ie traction motor for each axle) and of which GM22 is a member. OF the 47 built all up there are 15 left in service with Austrailian Railroad Group and SSR Similiar locomotiver were built for the Victorian Railways (S class) and the NSW railways (42 class) The S class has the privlage of being the first locomotive in the world to have C trucks (instead of the A-1-A combo used until that time) Alot of Austrailian locomotives have been based on US designs such as the above locomotive. Another example is the ALCo GE built 43 class which looks alot like the GE rolling laboratory.
As for comparing US prototypes to Aus, this is a picture of one the two engines pulling the Indian Pacific in the journey from Sydney to Perth. I did not think that this engine looked anything like a US prototype, but on the side it says "C40-9." It was designed in Australia under license from GE and built in Western Australia. Under close examination, all the doors, vents, filters, etc are the same as the US engine. The main differences that I observed were the cab structure, the absence of the radiator hammer head on the rear, and the two vertically placed air tanks on the side. Otherwise, it is definitely a GE and very similar to the US C40-9.
The proper coding for the NR class (pictured by Flash) is C40-9vi C = C trucks 40 = 4000horsepower -9 = series 9 electrical components v = not sure could be an international coding i = insulated cab (from engine noise) therefore the coding refers to what it is not what it looks like (to some extent - as the last letter refers to the cab style eg w or I) Due to our loading guage and the govt process of tender and bid. A company will submit a design that meets the requirements of the bid of which one of those was box cab construction which is similiar to most Australian locomotives after about the 1970's.
'v' is probably variable power. The NR's have three horsepower settings - 1800, 2700 (?) and 4000 hp, from memory. How they change the hp I don't know (possibly shutting down some of the injectors?).
CTE would be more like wheelslip control in my mind. My understanding of variable power was a fuel saving arrangement where they only used the horsepower (and attendant fuel consumption) required. NS had the feature on their C44-9's where the unit could be switched back to 4000hp. Sten, I'll be in contact shortly - heading back home for a 4-week visit and time to reacquaint myself with the Sydney N layout and it's new surroundings. I'd like to organise a time with you, Paul and Jase.
